Background: My bike was stolen 3 weeks ago. I filed a police report and registered on a couple of websites, just in case. I made a post on my local craigslist site in the For Sale - Bikes category too, with a picture.
Every few days, I've been checking the "Lost and Found" section on CL in addition to the For Sale section, just on the off-chance it shows up. I've responded to a few "found bike" ads through the site. Most have been genuine responses from real people, but this latest one confuses me.
The ad reads "Found bike". The description says "call (604) xxx-xxxx". It's a local number, but I didn't want to call, so I just emailed a brief description of my bike through the site.
I got a reasonably quick reply with the standard craigslist header, a subject line "Your Kona" and the following text:
Then I got a second message 2 minutes later with exactly the same text, but also including a link to the ad that I originally posted 3 weeks.
The From address is identified as "stephanie" The email address has a shortened form of this name, but ends in "_bot@hotmail.com"
Is the _bot indicative of a spam bot? My hotmail account has flagged both messages as dangerous so I haven't unblocked either one.
I also searched the phone number and it's apparently a local cell phone in New Westminster (city within Greater Vancouver). It only appears in one other ad on craigslist.
Thoughts?
______________________________
So I picked up my bike from the VPD this afternoon, and it's still in very good condition, amazingly. However, whomever stole it made a number of modifications:
Pedals (Wellgo; look like they're made for proper bike shoes)
Slick tires front and back (Matrix 550 (F), Seca (R))
2 red LED flashers
They also cut the front brake cables confused and tied some Spiderman swim goggles, minus the lenses) onto the front of the handlebars. The rear brakes still work though.
I don't know if these are upgrades or not, but the parts look to be in decent shape. I'm going to take it in to get a new brake cable and have the bike shop check it out anyways.
I'm about to head out, but I'll post a pic tomorrow.
Every few days, I've been checking the "Lost and Found" section on CL in addition to the For Sale section, just on the off-chance it shows up. I've responded to a few "found bike" ads through the site. Most have been genuine responses from real people, but this latest one confuses me.
The ad reads "Found bike". The description says "call (604) xxx-xxxx". It's a local number, but I didn't want to call, so I just emailed a brief description of my bike through the site.
I got a reasonably quick reply with the standard craigslist header, a subject line "Your Kona" and the following text:
Then I got a second message 2 minutes later with exactly the same text, but also including a link to the ad that I originally posted 3 weeks.
The From address is identified as "stephanie" The email address has a shortened form of this name, but ends in "_bot@hotmail.com"
Is the _bot indicative of a spam bot? My hotmail account has flagged both messages as dangerous so I haven't unblocked either one.
I also searched the phone number and it's apparently a local cell phone in New Westminster (city within Greater Vancouver). It only appears in one other ad on craigslist.
Thoughts?
______________________________
So I picked up my bike from the VPD this afternoon, and it's still in very good condition, amazingly. However, whomever stole it made a number of modifications:
Pedals (Wellgo; look like they're made for proper bike shoes)
Slick tires front and back (Matrix 550 (F), Seca (R))
2 red LED flashers
They also cut the front brake cables confused and tied some Spiderman swim goggles, minus the lenses) onto the front of the handlebars. The rear brakes still work though.
I don't know if these are upgrades or not, but the parts look to be in decent shape. I'm going to take it in to get a new brake cable and have the bike shop check it out anyways.
I'm about to head out, but I'll post a pic tomorrow.